Mt. Shasta | Mary J. McCoy-Dressel

Tag: Mt. Shasta

#AmWriting ~Easy on the Eyes~ #MFRWauthor Blog Hop

Posted at 11:21 am by Mary J. McCoy-Dressel, on July 7, 2017

#MFRWauthor 52 Week Blog Challenge Blog Hop

Week 27: The Most Beautiful Place I’ve Been

This is the twenty-seventh week. I guess this means we’re on the down-hill spiral now. It’s hard to believe half of 2017 has already gone by, but here we are again with another 52 Week Blog Challenge post. We have a whole half of year to look forward to.

About this week’s topic… Maybe Mt. Shasta isn’t the most beautiful spot I’ve ever been, but it’s up there at the top with:

The Great Lake State:

Viewing a lighthouse at sunset at Ludington State Park.
Bluffs over Lake Michigan at Sleeping Bear Dunes.
Viewing Lake Superior from the top of a lighthouse in Upper Michigan (Upper Peninsula).
Sunrise over Lake Huron in the thumb area of Michigan while making coffee in a van at Pointe aux Barques Lighthouse near Port Hope.

California:

The Golden Gate Bridge.
Napa Valley.

I could choose:

Niagara Falls at night from the dining room in the Skylon Tower.
Smokey or Allegheny Mountains.
Horses and donkeys running free in the desert. (I’ve seen both in Arizona and Nevada.)

In other words, so far in this lifetime, I can’t choose one particular place.

But today I’m choosing a “beautiful” trip and heartfelt memory with my oldest son.

Mt. Shasta, California.

It’s Thanksgiving weekend. On this visit to California to see my oldest son, we did a couple day trips. The ones I’ll mention today are our trips to Mt. Shasta, the mountain and the city, McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park, and Shasta Dam and Lake. On a clear day you can see Mt. Lassen at Lassen Volcanic National Park. We visited Mt. Lassen on my first visit to California.

Mt. Shasta isn’t in view in this image due to the clouds.

The Three Shastas. Lake. Dam. Mountain.

It’s a steady climb all the way up. The temperature was around the mid-sixties when we left, and by time we got there, his temp gage in the truck hit around thirty-two degrees. He wanted to show me the Mt. Shasta Ski Park, but it was closed. We got as far as the gate. I’ve shown you pictures of Mt. Shasta before, but this wall hanging was a Christmas gift from him. My previous (times two moves) apartment wallpaper didn’t look that yucky color in person.

He took the picture from the Oregon side of the mountain. It’s a three-panel canvas and is almost the size of my couch. The time spent with him that long weekend is a favorite memory, and is the reason I shared Mt. Shasta as one of the most beautiful places I’ve been. I can’t wait to see what the other participating authors chose.

Since this is a Blog Hop, please hop over to visit by clicking HERE. Thanks for reading.

Posted in #MFRWauthor, #WritersLife, 52-week blog challenge | 18 Comments | Tagged #AmWriting, #MFRWauthor, #WritersLife, 52-week blog challenge, blog hop, California, Easy on the Eyes~ #MFRWauthor Blog Hop, Mary J McCoy-Dressel, McArthur-Burney Falls, Mt. Lassen, Mt. Shasta, National Parks, Shasta Dam, thanksgiving, vacation

#AmWriting Tuesday Inspiration for the Muse: Images Speak

Posted at 3:01 pm by Mary J. McCoy-Dressel, on February 21, 2017

Happy Tuesday!

Mary J McCoy-Dressel Books

It’s true, I almost forgot—today is Tuesday. It’s been too long since I posted under my self-proclaimed Tuesday Inspiration for the Muse theme. What inspired me today? Well, nothing popped into my mind, so I browsed photos under the tag “Inspiration.” Why did this particular image get my attention? Oh, thanks for asking!

Mary J McCoy-Dressel, western romance

This setting inspired a book I wrote some time ago—even before I took up the lasso to rope in those cowboys. But… Oh, such a big but… I never finished it. LOL Said book was to take place in Northern California with the lavender fields as part of the setting. Mt. Shasta would be in the distance. My son promised to visit the area to be my eyes for the book. You can bet the next time I visit him, we will visit the lavender fields because you never know when a cowboy might move. (Hah, not on my watch.)

I found this image at Pixabay. The mountain in the distance reminds me of the mountain my son can see from about sixty-miles away. It can also be seen from the lavender fields according to pictures on their website. I’ve been to Mt. Shasta, both the mountain and city, but at the time I didn’t know anything about lavender fields. In my fictional mind, my town would be a fictitious town, anyway. I had written over 60,000 words in this story.

Then:

Everything changed. I’m not ready to stop writing western romance, so this book is going through a major revision to change the setting to Canyon Junction. The book, which is the second book in my new spin off series—Canyon Junction: Hearts in Love, will have the same plot and most of the same characters. Definitely the same hero, but now he’s a cowboy. The heroine will turn into a cowgirl whether she likes it or not. They both get a new home, wardrobe, and occupation. Y’all will meet the hero in Lassoing the Last Dance.

Most of my books are hero focused, but this one is more focused on my heroine. She deserves all the attention she can get. Finding Kimber will be published before the year is over. I’ve created a humungous challenge for myself, and I look forward to figuring it all out. Wish me luck.

Here’s one of the photos I took while on a day outing to Mt. Shasta with my California kid.

Mary J McCoy-Dressel, western romance